Quintana, Semien Lead Sox Over Blue Jays

Chicago 3, Toronto 2

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Chicago White Sox's Dayan Viciedo, left, celebrates with Marcus Semien, right, after Viciedo scored on Semien's home run against the Toronto Blue Jays during the second inning.

Jose Quintana was happy to get a win.

The left-hander, who leads the American League with 17 no-decisions this season, pitched into the eighth inning and rookie Marcus Semien hit his first homer to lead the Chicago White Sox to a 3-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night.

Quintana (9-6) allowed two runs on five hits in 7 1-3 innings. Addison Reed pitched the ninth inning to record his 39th save of the season.

"Of course; I'm very happy with the win," Quintana said through an interpreter. "I'm going to continue to work and develop and, hopefully, put my team in a position to win."

With an earned run average of 3.45 and close to 200 innings pitched, Quintana certainly has put his team in position to win most nights.

"He's kind of your classic lefty," Toronto manager John Gibbons said. "He mixes speeds, moves it in and around. He's got a quick arm, ball gets on you. It's more explosive than the radar gun will show you. He's got a feel. You can tell he just knows what he's doing out there."

The way White Sox manager Robin Ventura sees it, the no-decisions have nothing to do with the way Quintana has pitched.

"He's pitched well," Ventura said. "Wins have been hard to come by, so it's nice that he got the win so he can feel good about it."

Run support has been the major problem this season, but Semien went a long way into seeing that wouldn't be a problem Monday with a two-run shot in the second inning.

"Any time you have any kind of first in the big leagues, it's a great feeling," Semien said.

The infielder, recalled on Sept. 4, has been playing mostly third base since joining the team. He's hitting .306 and making all the plays in the field and making a strong push to be considered for a spot on the rister next season.

"I think Marcus is making a case for himself," Ventura said. "He has a lot of tools that he's using. We're getting to see what he can do."

Semien well knows what potentially is on the line with his play this month, but says he's not about to put that kind of pressure on himself.

"I feel good about the way I've been playing," he said. "I try not to worry about making a case or anything like that. I try to focus on helping the team win. I'm glad we got the win tonight."

Semien's homer in the second inning opened the scoring. With Dayan Viciedo on first, Semien hit an 0-2 pitch from Happ down the line and well over the fence for a 2-0 lead.

The Blue Jays cut the lead in half as catcher J.P. Arencibia led off the fifth inning with his 21st homer, but the White Sox got the run back in the bottom of the inning when Avisail Garcia led off with a solo shot to make it 3-1.

The Blue Jays closed the gap to 3-2 on a run-scoring single by Ryan Goins in the eighth inning, but that was as close as they got.